Resurrection
by Grav
Summary: Coming back from the dead was never easy


AN: Due to a miscommunication, I thought that venom69 needed a back-up writer and thus wrote her story for her. Then I found out she didn't need a back-up writer because she had already written the story. And then she wrote the prompt that I hadn't written. So it's audreysmagic's lucky day.

Spoilers: Threads and everything else.

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Not mine. But I've seen pictures of the action figures.

Summary: Coming back from the dead was never easy.

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**Resurrection**

Coming back from the dead was never easy. Daniel Jackson knew this better than most because he had done it several times. The first time, he had nearly been arrested and his wife was gone. The second time his friends had completely gone through the grieving process and packed up all his stuff. The biggest time, of course, he had been I really /I dead and they even sold his house, putting his things into storage or "borrowing" them. He'd had more connections by then, more people to miss him and more of a place in the world.

So much had happened before he died this time. Everything had happened so quickly after that. He had been prepared to fight in the way he had become accustomed too: as a warrior. Instead, he found himself locked in a battle of minds and, on some level, he rejoiced in it.

And then he'd died and found himself in that excruciating diner drinking endless cups of coffee and trying to find out what the hell was going on. Which, excruciating diner excepted, was hardly unusual, but his circumstances were hugely different.

Daniel didn't like being dead very much. He hated the inactivity. Oma tried to tell him that he wasn't really dead and that there was plenty to do, but Daniel had always hated watching. To be stuck, reliant entirely upon cryptic hints and ridiculous newspaper headlines was driving him crazy.

A new newspaper plopped down in front of him and his coffee cup filled again. Across the room, Anubis smirked at him. Daniel unflipped the newspaper and read the headline: "SGC forces running out of time". He started to skim the article, reading about how everything was encroaching on them all at once, but then the headline below the fold caught his eye.

"Long-time SCG ally on death's door". Daniel read the article frantically, but it was so vaguely worded that he couldn't figure out who it was talking about. He looked up and met Oma's world-weary gaze. Something would have to be done.

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The light hadn't changed from the last time he was here. It was bright, but not piercing, and it seemed to fill him. There was a liquid quality to the light. It flowed all around him. It hummed without making noise and contained all the knowledge in the Universe.

It was still as boring as the last time he was here.

There was one tiny variation. It was so minute that he missed it for the first few seconds of his omniscience. The Others were surprised. They hadn't expected Oma to fight Anubis and they were slightly worried as to what would happen if she lost or got bored and stopped fighting him off. Deliberations began. Daniel rolled eyes he no longer had and decided it was time to leave.

I As I was /I , he thought into the ether. The Others were too busy to notice. The last thing Daniel remembered was that he had forgotten to check which one of his friends was in trouble.

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Daniel had barely been dead this time, so it wasn't really necessary to put his life back together. His friends had been a little busy, and frankly expecting to see him again, so his worldly possessions were just as he had left them. Since the Others hadn't wiped his memory, he was able to give a very detailed report in his debriefing. At the same time, Sam and Teal'c caught him up on what he'd missed. Jack was upset that Daniel already knew what had happened at the SGC thanks to being in the bed next to Siler in the infirmary.

Daniel knew that there was something else he was supposed to remember, something about his teammates, but he found that he couldn't. Neither Sam nor Teal'c looked particularly ruffled. Something in his brain told him that what he was trying to remember had something to do with those two.

Teal'c had taken up the story again, explaining how the Jaffa were aligning with their newfound freedom. When he mentioned Bra'tac, several things fell loudly into place in Daniel's mind and he turned abruptly to Sam.

"Jacob!" he said, more loudly than he had intended. Sam flinched. "Something happened to Jacob."

"It was Selmak." Sam said after a long pause. "She was old and dying and Dad would let her die alone."

"Jacob Carter and the Tok'ra Selmak are listed first among the dead for the Battle of Dakara." Teal'c said. "Although they did not die there, they gave their lives in defence of a planet that was not their own."

Sam smiled weakly and Jack squeezed her arm.

"Did Mark get here?" Daniel asked delicately.

"Yes." Sam said. "Just before the end. There was a lot I couldn't tell him, but he was here."

"I am sorry I wasn't here. Jacob was a good friend."

"That's okay." Sam said, then looked puzzled. "How did you know?"

"I read it in the newspaper." Daniel said, aware of how ridiculous that sounded.

"An Ancient newspaper?" Jack asked.

"Yes." Said Daniel. "It wasn't terribly informative but it kept me up to date about what you were doing."

"It was an interesting fight." Jack admitted. "Just about everyone we've ever pissed off showed up at once."

"At least it's over." Sam said. "Well, for now. Dad always said that the first thing he learned from Selmak is that nothing is ever over."

There was another pause and then Jack reached for the water jug and glasses in the middle of the table and poured four cups. He pushed them out to his teammates and raised his glass.

"To regrouping." He said.

"To standing up." Daniel said.

"To freedom." Teal'c added.

"To Selmak." Said Sam. "And to my Dad."

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**finis**

GravityNotIncluded, December 18, 2006


End file.
